Swivel-type lipstick container



April l5, 1969 D. A. sEAvER SWIVEL-TYPE LIPSTICK CONTAINER Filed Jan. 30, 1967 Huuswmuwwwmwm l ll 1 llllmunmnnm United States Patent O 3,438,714 SWIVEL-TYPE LIPSTICK CONTAINER Donald A. Seaver, Cheshire, Conn., assgnor to Scovill Manufacturing Company, Waterbury, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut Filed Jan. 30, 1967, Ser. No. 612,400

Int. Cl. A45d 40/06 U.S. Cl. 401--78 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE In a swivel type lipstick container, improved means is provided to prevent any accidental turning movement between the inner shell and the spiral cam sleeve which might cause damage to the lipstick material by jamming against the cap during handling or shipment. This is accomplished by the simple expedient of tiattening the angular bottom tip of the spiral to bear on the inner shell. Relative turning of the parts by an ordinary jarring action is thus prevented while permitting smooth movement in either direction by manual operation.

This invention relates to swivel-type lipstick containers and particularly to an improved friction device to prevent accidental turning movement of the inner shell in the outer shell.

Heretofore, there have been devised other devices for creating friction between the inner shell and spiral sleeve intended for the same purposes as this invention. The closest examples are 1,849,531 (Lyhne) and 2,777,572 (Cusack). 'In these patented devices, the metal thickness of the spiral sleeve, the direction and short length of the friction tabs make it very dil'licult to obtain and control a suitable spring action. Furthermore, they require special cut-outs and create problems in assembly.

In the present invention, these difficulties are overcome and a friction device is provided by inward flattening of the lower end of the spiral, thus taking advantage of the direction in which the spiral extends to -give flexibility. This requires no additional cutting away of metal and `does not interfere in any Way with the assembly of the spiral in unstressed condition over the inner shell. When the outer shell is forced over the spiral, this llattened spiral end is automatically forced resiliently against the inner shell -with a tangential bearing. This allows smooth movement in either direction by manual operation while at the same time, resisting accidental movement such as might be caused through a jarring action in handling or shipment.

In the accompanying drawing, I have shown for purpose of illustration one embodiment which the invention may assume in practice. In the drawing:

FIG. l is a partial sectional view of a completely assembled lipstick container;

FIG. 2 is a vertical elevation of a partially assembled container looking from the right side of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a cross-section on line 3-3 of FIG. y2;

FIG, 4 is an elevation of the inner shell;

FIG. 5 is an elevation of the spiral cam sleeve; and

FIG. 6 is a bottom plan view of the cam sleeve.

The inner shell is a one-piece plastic molding having the cylindrical portion 7 and an operating head 8 at the lower end. The top end of the inner shell is open and has a circumferential bead 9 with a conical lead-in surface 10. The cylindrical portion r7 has the vertical pin-receiving slot 11 with a lateral extension 12 at the bottom and a narrow extension 13 opening through the top so that the top portion is flexible.

The spiral cam sleeve or shell, generally designated at .3,438,714 Patented Apr. 15, 1969 ICC 14 is blanked out and rolled up from sheet metal so as to provide the spiral cam slot 15 extending from one end to the other of the sleeve. During assembly, the spiral sleeve is forced over the bead 9 of the inner shell and snaps into place between this bead and a shoulder 16 at the upper end of the operating head 8. When assembled, the inner shell is normally free to turn inside the spiral cam sleeve 14.

A carrier cup 17 for the lipstick material 18` rides inside the bore of the inner shell and has an operating pin 19 extending laterally through the vertical slot 11 into engagement with the spiral slot 15. Thus, the lipstick material is propelled outwardly or retracted in the usual manner by operating the head y8. The spiral cam sleeve 14 may have an upper shoulder 20` to support the pin 19 in its uppermost position, and a lateral extension 21 at the bottom lines up with the extension 12 of the inner shell slot 11 to receive pin 19 and act as a stop in the fully retracted position of the carrier cup 17.

The angular end portion 22 of the spiral sleeve is flattened and bent inwardly to bear on the cylindrical surface 7 of the inner shell immediately above the shoulder 16 of the operating head 8 where the inner shell is rigid. This provides a smooth inner surface 23 on the angular end portion 22 which bears tangentially on the inner shell so as to allow smooth manual operating without any tendency to dig into the surface of the plastic shell. Since this friction element extends in the direction of the spiral, a sufficient length of material is available to give the desired ilexibility.

The outer shell 24 is a plain open-ended cylinder which has a somewhat smaller inner diameter than the outer diameter of the spiral sleeve in unstressed condition. As seen in FIG. 2, the outer shell 24 is being forced over the spiral sleeve 14 and this action automatically forces the angular end 22 into frictional bearing against the inner shell. The outer shell 24 grips the spiral sleeve with a sufficient binding action that relative turning movement is prevented after the parts are assembled.

What I claim is:

1. In a swivel-type lipstick container having:

(a) a cylindrical inner shell molded from plastic material with an open top end, a longitudinal slot in the cylindrical wall thereof and an operating head at the bottom;

(b) a spiral cam sleeve made of springy metal loosely surrounding said inner shell and providing a spiral slot extending throughout the length of said sleeve, said sleeve terminating at the bottom in an angular end section;

(c) a carrier cup slidably movable inside said inner shell and having an actuating pin projecting laterally from said cup through said longitudinal slot into engagement with said spiral slot, whereby turning movement of said inner shell relative to said cam sleeve will propel said cup toward said open end or retract it therefrom;

(d) an outer shell tightly surrounding said cam sleeve and holding it in radially compressed condition whereby relative turning movement between said outer shell and cam sleeve is prevented; and

(e) the improvement which consists of said angular end section being attened and bent radially inwardly so that its at inner surface bears resiliently and tangentially against the outer surface of said inner shell to provide frictional resistance to prevent accidental movement while permitting smooth manual movement of said inner shell relative to said cam sleeve and otuer shell.

2. The combination defined in claim 1, said cam sleeve 3 being further characterized by having a suicient internal diameter in its uncompressed condition that said llattened end section Will not flexibly bear against the inner shell thereby facilitating telescopic assembly of said cam sleeve over the inner shell, whereby said sleeve is compressed o by said outer shell being forced over it to automatically produce the desired frictional resistance between said inner shell and cam sleeve.

4 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,849,531 3/1932 Lynne t- 401-78 2,072,662 3/1937 Abbons 401-78 LAWRENCE CHARLES, Primm-y Examiner.

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